Balestier Regency's fifth en bloc bid: land at $1,473 psf ppr, 55% of new-home psf

Balestier Regency is back on the collective sale market at $255m, the fifth attempt by its owners to sell the 72-unit freehold block in District 12 1. The guide price works out to about $1,473 psf ppr, including a land betterment charge (LBC) of $381,181, and the tender closes on 12 November 1. Official prices show that land rate is about 55% of the district's median new-sale psf, close to what developers paid for a government site this year 35.

What changed

Balestier Regency is back on the collective sale market at a guide price of $255m, The Business Times reported on 13 October 2026, with SRI Capital Market as exclusive marketing agent 1. The guide price translates to about $1,473 psf ppr including the LBC, and SRI put the effective rate at about $1,437 psf ppr once the LBC and extra balcony floor area are counted 1.

Completed in 1990, the development is a single 10-storey block of 72 apartments of 1,270 to 1,496 sq ft 1. It sits on a 61,931 sq ft site zoned residential under URA's Master Plan 2025, with a gross plot ratio of 2.8 and a maximum gross floor area of about 173,407 sq ft 1. Subject to approvals, the site could be redeveloped into up to 161 homes 1. The LBC is small because the development already has a high baseline plot ratio of 2.793, SRI said when the site was offered in May 2.

The tender closes on 12 November 2026 1.

Five attempts, and a price that has risen less than the market

The owners have tried four times before, all without a sale 1:

Sources: The Business Times 12.

The price the owners now ask is about 17% higher than in 2018, when it was $218m 12. Over the same years, URA's price index for non-landed private homes rose from between 141.6 and 146.8 across the four quarters of 2018 to 210.6 in the second quarter of 2026 4. That is a rise of 43.5% to 48.7% 4.

So the owners have raised their price by far less than the market for finished homes has risen. The index tracks home prices, not land, and it does not show what a developer could build and sell for here. It does show that the owners' price has not run ahead of the market since 2018.

What the numbers show

A developer judges a guide price by what the land costs against what new homes sell for. Sightlines queried URA's private residential transactions for condominiums and apartments in postal district 12, and within 1.5 km of Balestier Regency, for contracts dated October 2025 to September 2026 3.

A new sale is a unit bought from the developer; a sub sale is a unit resold before the project's completion; a resale is a unit resold after it. Quantum is the total price paid; psf is that price divided by the strata area URA records, in square feet.

District 12 had 57 new sales in that window, at a median of $3.066m in quantum and $2,683 psf 3. They came from two projects: The Arcady at Boon Keng, a freehold project with 32 new sales at a median of $2,634 psf, and The Orie, on a lease from 2024, with 25 at $2,713 psf 3. The district had 373 resales, at a median of $1.502m and $1,748 psf 3.

Within 1.5 km of Balestier Regency, URA's records hold 540 resales at a median of $1.63m and $1,771 psf, and no new sales 3. URA gives no coordinates for some projects, and a radius search cannot place those sales, so the radius figures cover only the sales URA has located 3.

One official land benchmark from this year is the Government Land Sales site at Kallang Close, awarded in April 2026 for $610.75m, or $15,231.43 per sqm of floor area 5. That is about $1,415 psf ppr, on a 99-year lease 5.

Sources: The Business Times; URA 5; URA Data Service 3; Sightlines analysis.

Three ratios follow. Balestier Regency's land rate is about 55% of the district's median new-sale psf 13. Kallang Close's was about 53% of it 35. And Balestier Regency asks about 4% more than Kallang Close per sq ft of floor area, for freehold land against a 99-year lease 15. Land is priced per sq ft of gross floor area and homes per sq ft of strata area, which are not the same measure, so these ratios are a first-line read only.

The same point holds per home. Spread over the 161 homes the site could take, the guide price is about $1.58m of land for each new home 1. Against the district's median new-sale quantum of $3.066m, that is about 52% 13. The average new home would have about 1,077 sq ft of gross floor area, before common areas are taken out 1.

On these measures Balestier Regency does not look expensive against the official benchmarks. That makes four unsuccessful attempts harder to explain from price alone. The evidence here cannot say why developers held back, and the article does not guess. What it shows is that a guide price in line with recent government land is not, by itself, enough to secure a sale.

What the district's two launches have sold at

The two District 12 projects that sold new units in the past year give the clearest view of what a buyer of Balestier Regency would be competing with 3. Over URA's five years of data, October 2021 to September 2026, they show 3:

Source: URA Data Service, new sales by project, October 2021 to September 2026 3.

Two points stand out. The freehold project sold at a lower median psf than the leasehold one, by about 5% 3. And it sold far fewer units, 111 against 743 3. In quantum, the middle half of the Arcady's new sales ran from $1.759m to $2.649m 3. The Orie's ran from $1.821m to $3.0515m 3. Freehold tenure, the main selling point of a site like Balestier Regency, has not on this evidence commanded a higher price per sq ft in the district. A developer pricing a freehold project here would have the Arcady's figures, not a freehold premium, as the nearest guide.

Set against the Arcady's median of $2,594 psf, or $2.015m in quantum, Balestier Regency's land rate is about 57% 13. That is close to the district-wide ratio, so the conclusion holds whichever benchmark is used.

What the owners would get, set against resale prices

For the 72 owners, the headline figure works out to about $3.54m a unit on average, before costs and before any split by share value or strata area 1. With units of 1,270 to 1,496 sq ft, that average is equal to about $2,367 to $2,789 per sq ft of existing strata area, depending on which end of the size range is used 1.

Against resales within 1.5 km, at a median of $1.63m and $1,771 psf, the average figure is about 2.2 times the median quantum, and 34% to 57% above the median psf 13. The exact amount any one owner would receive depends on the apportionment in the collective sale agreement and on the sale price, so these figures show the size of the gap rather than any household's payout.

How prices around Balestier have moved since 2022

The same URA query, run for each contract year, shows the resale median psf near Balestier Regency rising each year to 2025 3.

Source: URA Data Service, condominiums and apartments within 1.5 km of Balestier Regency 3; Sightlines analysis.

The resale median rose from $1,542 psf in 2022 to $1,757 psf in 2025, and held there in the first nine months of 2026, when the median resale cost $1.619m in quantum 3. That is a rise of about 13.9% 3. New sales located within 1.5 km fell from 161 in 2022 to none in 2025 and 2026 to September 3. SRI said District 12 has only two recent new launches and a diminishing pipeline of unsold units, which matches the URA district figures above 23.

A thin pipeline cuts both ways for a buyer of this site. It could help a new project sell. It also leaves little recent evidence of what new homes right beside Balestier Road would fetch.

Who is affected, and who is not

The owners of Balestier Regency are the first readers. A guide price is not an offer, and the tender result will decide whether this attempt succeeds 1.

In Sightlines' reading, owners of other blocks of about the same age in the area have a stake too, because a sale price here would be one more reference point for land.

Under the collective sale rules in force, a development aged 10 to 39 years needs 80% consent 6. Balestier Regency, completed in 1990, is 36 years old in 2026, so it sits in that band 16. The Land Titles (Strata) (Amendment) Bill 2026 would keep 80% for that band and add lower thresholds only for developments aged 40 years and older 6. The Minister for Law moved its Second Reading on 8 September 2026 7. On that schedule, Balestier Regency would reach 40 in 2030 1.

The Bill also extends the restriction period after a failed collective sale attempt from two years to three, During that period any attempt to form a new collective sale committee faces heightened requisition thresholds 7. The first such attempt still needs at least 50% of owners, as under the current law, while later attempts must meet the full consent threshold for the development's age 7. The minister said owners should not be subjected to repeated attempts soon after a failed one where support is insufficient 7. Most of the amendments apply to exercises that had not collected their first signature by the commencement date, which will be announced later 6. Where the first signature came earlier, the existing framework continues, although committees still collecting signatures may restart under the new rules 6.

What to watch next

• The tender closes on 12 November 2026, the same day as a separate tender for a freehold estate at 8 Lornie Road 1.
• Whether a bid comes in near $255m, or the price is cut, will show whether the 2026 GLS benchmark holds for freehold collective sale sites 15.
• The Ministry of Law will announce the commencement date of the collective sale amendments when ready 6.

The lesson travels beyond this block. A guide price close to recent government land prices, measured per sq ft of floor area, is a necessary condition for a sale, not a sufficient one. Owners weighing a collective sale can run the same check: guide price plus LBC, divided by the maximum floor area, set against the median new-sale psf in the district.

This is general information, not financial advice. Check the current rules with IRAS, HDB, CPF Board or your bank before you commit.